Murray State
Jacksonville State
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MSU Squeezes Past JSU 57-54 for Third Straight Win
2/14/2009 6:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State Racers pushed their winning streak to three straight games Saturday in a 57-54 home win over
MSU improved to 9-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference and 14-10 overall, while JSU fell to 5-11 and 11-14.
With the upset bug biting in the OVC Saturday night, the Racers had to fight off a determined JSU squad who had an upset in mind too.
“I knew it would be a battle,” MSU Head Coach Billy Kennedy said. “I knew JSU would play better than they did at UT Martin. I am thankful we squeezed it out for a win.”
MSU had an eight-point lead 40-32 when Danero Thomas scored a three-point play with 13:47 remaining, but JSU made a run and cut it to 42-41 at 10:38.
The Racers were down for the first time in the game at 8:30 when Jon Toles scored on a drive for a 43-42 JSU lead, but Danero Thomas scooted quickly down the floor and the Racers had the lead back seconds later at 44-43.
Isacc Miles made a pair of free throws for a 49-43 lead for the Racers with 5:19 left, he added another with 3:34 left and the Racers had a 51-45 lead.
The Racers had a shot clock violation that led to a three-point play by Nick Murphy and the Racer lead was down to 53-52 with 1:17 left.
At 40 seconds, Miles tried a three-pointer just before the shot clock buzzer and missed giving JSU a chance to take the lead after they called a timeout with 30 ticks left.
JSU turned it back to MSU on a travel violation with 19 seconds remaining.
Jeffery McClain was fouled and went to the line with 17.6 left where he made both free throws for a three point lead, but Toles scored with 8.8 left and again the lead was one at 55-54.
Danero Thomas was fouled and missed both free throws leading to a very tense moment.
JSU's Brandon Crawford dribbled into the MSU lane but was called for traveling and the Racers had the ball back with 1.7 left.
McClain made both free throws with .7 left to secure the MSU win 57-54.
Kennedy pointed to the start of the second half when he saw a sign that it was going to be a tough go.
“I knew at the beginning of the second half...the look of our players and that JSU was playing with a lot of confidence that I knew it was going to be a grind,” Kennedy said.
MSU's Tony Easley led the way with 14 points with all but two coming in the first half.
“That was the longest 30 seconds in my career,” Easley deadpanned. “Every second was tough and made you hold your breath.”
Danero Thomas scored 13 for MSU.
In a rare quirk of the box score, each team had the same shooting numbers of 19-of-48 from the field for 39 percent.
MSU enjoyed a 10-point lead three times in the first half including a 30-20 lead with 1:00 left.
The Racers led 30-22 at the half.
GAME NOTES
The upset bug mentioned earlier in this article was the 88-80 win that
The Racers have won seven of their last eight games. The only loss was an 83-80 setback at Austin Peay Feb. 7.
MSU can match their four-game winning streak from early in the season if they can win at Southeast Missouri Tuesday.
MSU had a string of wins against Western Kentucky,
Tony Easley had a hot start to the game when he scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds in the first 14 minutes.
The Racers are now 127-24 (.841) in their 11th season in the RSEC and 22-3 in the last two seasons. MSU is 30-8 (.789) in the building in the Billy Kennedy era.
MSU leads the all-time series with JSU 11-0 and are 5-0 at the RSEC since the Gamecocks joined the OVC in 2004.
Billy Kennedy is 8-2 all-time against JSU and 6-0 at MSU. He was 2-2 against them as the head coach of Centenary (1997-1999). Kennedy is 48-37 (.564) in three seasons at MSU and 152-163 (.482) in 11 seasons as a head coach.
MSU's Tyler Holloway was given a special basketball before the game to commemorate his milestone of joining the MSU 1,000-Point club this week. He scored six points tonight and now has 1,022 good for 33rd place. Hector Blondet (1968-71) is in 32nd place with 1,030. Mike Coleman (1972-74) has 1,038 in 31st place.
Holloway hit one three-point basket tonight and has 195 in his career. He's chasing down third place Justin Burdine (1998-02) who has 198. Second place is held down by Don Mann (1986-89) with 204.
The Racers travel to the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. for a Tuesday 7 p.m. game at Southeast Missouri State. The Racers have won their last five games at SEMO since last losing there in 2003.
The MSU-SEMO game will be aired live to customers of NewWave Communications and Mediacom. The broadcast begins at 6:45 p.m. with Jeff Waters and Dave Winder calling the action.
